The Lakers are going to have to find ways to use their two highest-paid players to win games without Davis tying things together.
As of Monday morning, the Lakers are 12th in the Western Conference standings, and they are six games behind the first-place New Orleans Pelicans . They’re 1.5 games behind the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves for a play-in slot and 3.
5 games behind the Portland Trail Blazers for a top-6 spot.without Anthony Davis to help close. LeBron James scored 33 points, Russell Westbrook had a triple-double, and Thomas Bryant stepped up in a big way to fill the void in the middle and slow down Nikola Jokic. It showed the team’s ability to dynamically solve problems mid-game, and was a powerful statement about their resourcefulness without their franchise big man.The loss to the Celtics in overtime was a gut-punch, particularly with the pair of missed free throws from Davis. But it wasn’t as dispiriting as the Sunday morning news that of the season. The Lakers have gone through long droughts without Davis before, and they’re rarely pleasant. This one hurts more with Davis playing at an MVP-caliber level in the last month.Look as hard as you want at the reported trade candidates: Myles Turner, Buddy Hield, Bojan Bogdanovic, Terry Rozier, even a return for Kyle Kuzma. There isn’t anyone in the field who is going to replace Anthony Davis. There may be players in that mix who can make life easier without him, especially when you look at nine of the next 12 on the road, but there are usually few trades in December unless the Lakers force the action.reported in this space last week , there has been a lull in Westbrook trade buzz. The Lakers are said to be satisfied with Westbrook’s off-the-bench role, allowing them to stagger minutes more with James. Now, the connective tissue of Davis, who can play with either, is out for the foreseeable future. Don’t the Lakers need to find a way to get their two max contract players out on the floor together more? The results have been mixed. James and Westbrook average 16.9 minutes together . They have a 110.2 offensive rating and a 110.3 defensive – an almost net neutral effect on the court . Their pace is higher than when James is in without Westbrook, fueling the transition game at its best. If you look on the court, however, those lineups can be disruptive to spacing,since defenses are more inclined to cheat into the paint and take away two driving threats to the rim. When asked about the on-court strengths, Ham mentioned that they are effective when the Lakers need to switch, especially covering pick-and-rolls. They improve communication on the floor, and they both are dynamic rollers to the rim. The two have a fascinating relationship. Before they were teammates, they were friends, playing cards in the NBA bubble. The trade was precipitated by the idea that they could play together with Davis. The on-court dynamic, as everyone knows, quickly went south. While it would be overly confident to project how that plays into personal relationships, there is certainly evidence that it did: The two didn’t appear to acknowledge one another while sitting courtside at the same Summer League game back in July. Over the offseason, a person close to last year’s team described their relationship to me as “two ships passing in the night” – which sure paints a picture. But there’s evidence, too, that they’re closer this season. There have been more plays and sequences when James and Westbrook celebrate one another. They are more forthcoming and complementary of each other in postgame interviews, which is no small thing in a somewhat political game. They didn’t speak as highly of each other last season. Finding more success in the last month can ease the strain on even the most strenuous team dynamics. And as trade talk of Westbrook has eased, perhaps there is more acceptance between the two former MVPs that their best way forward is to play with and for each other – although that could be presumptuous as well. But there’s always going to be some inherent tension in the way they play. On Friday, the two played a roughly six-minute stint together against Denver that saw the Lakers outscore the Nuggets by 16 points. But on Sunday, Westbrook looked shakier, leading Ham to only play him two minutes in the fourth quarter in a narrow win. Mixing two players, even ones as gifted as James and Westbrook, is more art than science. It seems clear that it won’t work on every night –even though it has to be a little encouraging that the Lakers got good results against Boston and Denver. But barring a trade, which doesn’t strike as imminent, the Lakers are going to have to find ways to use their two highest-paid players to win games without Davis tying things together.
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